Dreaming in Dog Years
by 0utfoxed
Summary: After her confrontation with Claudia, Heather decides to remain in Silent Hill. (Alternative ending for Silent Hill 3)


**'Dreaming in Dog Years'**

* * *

The god-thing on the floor quivered, then lay still. Heather let her empty gun fall to the floor and approached, with some hesitation. Although she was quite certain that it was dead, she still let loose in one last frenzy of violence, kicking away at the lifeless mass of flesh until she was out of breath.

She staggered back a few steps, exhausted, taking a minute to recover. She looked about the underground chamber, but could detect no movement. No sound. It was as though the whole world had ground to a halt, and she was the last living soul around.

"Is that the end?" she said, speaking to no-one but herself. "I guess it's time to roll the credits."

She began to search for a way out, pausing after taking a few steps in the opposite direction. All that remained for her to do was to retrace her steps to the surface and return home. Except there was nothing for her to return to. Though the knowledge that she would have to move on somehow after what had happened had never left her mind, it was only now that her struggle here was over that it all began to seem real to her.

"...Dad."

She fell to her knees and wept for Harry Mason. Despite her victory here, she had been robbed of her chance at revenge, as evidenced by Claudia's tattered remains. And in the end, she was powerless to change anything. Vengeance would never replace what had been taken from her.

She sat there on the floor a moment longer, half-expecting the place to collapse all around her. But everything was still. She remained trapped in a nowhere place, a place she was not sure even existed outside her own head. She could stay here for an eternity, she realized, and nothing would stir, or change.

A strange notion came to her, then.

 _"You didn't abort God. You_ are _God."_

A wave of nausea washed over her, overwhelming her senses in one debilitating moment of absolute lucidity. Her heart throbbed, and her whole body was beset by a sudden, acute kind of numbness. She raised her hands, stained with blood and rust, regarding them as if seeing them for the first time. There was a strange, tingling sensation in her fingertips, and a ringing in her head. What if it was true? Her mind could scarcely begin to accept the implications. The responsibilities. The _possibilities_..

As the feeling of nausea passed, she raised her head, casting one last glance at the wretch lying on the basement floor, then stood up and walked through the dark passage leading outside.

* * *

Douglas threw the last of his cigarette to the ground and shook his head. By the time the sun had started to creep over the horizon, he knew Heather wasn't coming back. With a heavy sigh, he turned and began to wander out of the amusement park, heading back to the motel by himself. To his surprise, nothing accosted him on his way back, and he arrived at his destination unmolested. He heaved himself into his beat-up ride and took off down the road, tuning the radio every now and then, searching for any station still broadcasting out here, finding only static. Home seemed like a million miles away, and the road before him seemed to stretch out into infinity. But as long as it led away from this place, that would do for a start.

* * *

As Heather wandered through the foggy streets, the things in the shadows shambled past her, keeping their distance. Whenever she looked their way, they would retreat or hide, if they could. She still saw them as monsters. How could she not? But she knew she had nothing to fear from them anymore. If anything, it was the other way around. And given their reaction to her presence, it was safe to say that they knew it, too.

Her mere presence seemed to pacify the town's hunger. The old gods, if they still existed, continued to exert their influence over this region. They longed to escape. But something else shackled them to this place, and her being here strengthened those bonds. Even so, the ever-present and encroaching darkness was reclaiming the town of Silent Hill, street by street, advancing when she tired of holding it back, or when she lost her focus. It was slowly wearing her down, and she knew it. Her headaches were becoming more severe by the day, and she experienced moments of complete catalepsy whenever she let her guard down for too long. Whatever force it was that held this place in its grasp, she could not stem the tide, not forever.

The town was lost, and the power had that corrupted it would continue to draw lost souls into its insatiable maw for as long as it existed. She had come to understand that she could not free this place. But she could reshape it. Give it purpose. She had made up her mind. She would alter Silent Hill, and make it into a purgatory for wayward souls. Her solution was not perfect, and many would likely be lost on their way. But perhaps doing this would grant some of them the chance to leave this place again.

She would have to move quickly. Even now, she could sense other lost souls on their way to this place, aching to reckon with their past.

 _James. Mary._ _Eddie. Angela.._

These names came to her in an idle thought. They all shared some connection to this town and each other, though she could not yet discern what it was that tied them all together. They would face tribulations not unlike those she and her father had experienced. And at last, they would find what answers they were looking for in that hotel in the distance, where everything would come to a close. That was, if the town did not consume them before they ever came that far. And there would be others still.

Without realizing it, her aimless wanderings had brought her to the outer edge of Silent Hill. Heather found herself standing outside an abandoned diner by the side of the road. There was even some traffic here, the occasional car passing by on the road located on the escarpment overhead, barely visible through the fog and rain. It had been a long time since she had seen another human being. How long, she could not recall, having long since lost all track of time.

She stepped inside the diner, finding it just as bereft of life as the rest of town, lit only by the red rays of sunset, slipping in through the blinds. Exhausted, she took a seat at one of the booths by the window. She lay her head on the table to rest, just for a moment. She was tired. So very tired.

* * *

 **Notes**

The canonical "good" ending for SH3 always struck me as being a little anti-climactic. The "possessed" ending, too, while more ominous, seemed a little abrupt and inappropriate. Consider this humble offering a third alternative, more in line with Silent Hill's themes of purgation, redemption, and cyclical time.


End file.
